1997 Volkswagen Polo from Philippines

General Comments:

I just want to agree on the good points posted on this site about the Polo Classic. It is a pocket rocket and stable on the road. You just need to be careful with the power window, because it will cost you PHP 300.00 per cable (and this car uses 2 of them per window).

Have no complaints until recently, when my car just shuts off on its own, in full stop or while running. I had a well known mechanic with years of experience under his belt look at the possible problem.. and he just told me "Suko na ko".

If any of you have the same problem and were fortunate to find a car center that can fix the problem, please text me at 0906-478-7077 or email me at jepoyornothing@yahoo.com.

Can't wait to ride in my Polo again... Hope to bump into you guys someday (hopefully not on the street.. hehehe).

Leak in engine coolant system, which mechanic has worked on now twice and has still not been able to find the origin.

When the car is in second gear sometimes (not very often, but enough to be annoying/dangerous) the engine cuts out.

Sometimes the steering wheel blocks, reason unknown. Have to stop the car and restart the engine. This feature is not particularly safe, though as yet has only happened at very low speeds.

General Comments:

The car handles very nicely and has a firm feel to it, unless driving at higher speeds (more than 120kmh), when it doesn't respond well to brisk manoeuvres. The motor is very smooth, acceleration is good, though on more quick overtaking need to change down a gear. The engine doesn't seem to be fazed by any amount of effort, even making hill starts on very steep inclines the car has no problems.

Inside the driving position is comfortable, even for someone my size (6' 3), though this is at the expense of space for passengers in the back. The seats themselves are comfortable, and both front seats can be angled down at the back (i.e. not lowered completely) for more armchair like position.

Fuel consumption is good, I would guess about 13-14kml on the motorway, but it's not something I really concentrated on. It was low enough not to worry too much about.

Only problem with this car was the amount of things in the engine which ended up breaking, especially as some of them didn't seem to be fixable, at least not at a reasonable price. Some mechanics told me that VW has a policy of using cheap plastic around the engine and bodywork where other companies (and models from the Golf upwards) would use metal. It's an easy ploy to save money, but it means that those parts of the car are less resistant.

This is the only bad experience with VW, and other friends and relatives with other models have not had similar problems. I would have thought this level of problems would have developed at at least double the mileage, but then again this could have been a one-off bad car. There's not much advice I can give on avoiding this as the defects were largely latent and not obvious on a test drive.

18th Jun 2007, 19:38

Haha. you're 6 foot 3 inches and you bought a Polo? beautiful. do you have a picture of you in the polo? maybe one of you wearing a funny little hat, with your knees under your chin? just kidding.

But seriously, the reason your engine cuts out is because there is a buildup of carbon and other rubbish in the throttle housing. buy a service manual, locate it, and clean it out. problem solved. you may have to do this every 8 months, but its easy. As for window mechanisms, they ALWAYS die eventually, and this should be expected if you intend to keep the car for long. I think you expect too much if you want a Polo to do any manoevining over 70 MPH, maybe you should buy a bigger car. with more head and legroom. Maybe an Accord?